Six years ago, a lot of people in La Crosse County wanted to be a judge.

In 2007, three new circuit judges were elected, all after hotly contested campaigns. But this year, it looks like those judges will all be guaranteed new terms. With one day left to file papers, no one has stepped forward to run against Todd Bjerke, Scott Horne, Elliott Levine...or Ramona Gonzalez, who's going for her fourth term. Two other area judges...Todd Ziegler in Monroe County, and John Damon in Trempealeau County...also are unopposed. A state Supreme Court primary is in the works, with two challengers facing Justice Pat Roggensack.

La Crosse's fireworks experts are busy on the bluff today, setting up for their colorful midnight New Year's show...

Skyrockers spokesman Jonathan Vermes says his group is adjusting to changes resulting from construction done at the top of Grandad Bluff. Jonathan tells us the location of the lighted 'falls' that go down the bluff may be moved a little. The main show happens tonight at 12 o'clock, but there's also the early Skyrockers performance at 6 p-m.

We should have known 2012 would be a crazy year for weather when the Onalaska Hilltoppers celebrated their state basketball title with an outdoor rally. On an 80-degree day in mid-March.

The record warmth of March was voted the second-biggest weather story in the La Crosse area this year by the National Weather Service. The number one weather event was a tie between the warmest local July ever, and the year-long drought. The very mild winter of 2011 and '12, and our recent pre-Christmas blizzard, also made the list of top local weather stories.

(AP) Two Republican legislators say they'll try again this session to overhaul Wisconsin's drunken driving laws. Rep. Jim Ott of Mequon and Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills say they plan to introduce bills that would criminalize first-time offenses for drivers with high blood alcohol percentages; require first-time offenders to appear in court; make a third conviction a felony; establish mandatory minimum sentences for drunken drivers that cause injuries or death; and require police to seize drunken drivers' cars beginning with a third-time offense.

The package closely mirrors bills Ott and Darling pushed during the last session. None of those proposals got a vote after fiscal estimates showed they would have cost the state tens of millions of dollars.

(AP) The University of Minnesota plans to review the cost of tuition for out-of-state residents. The university dropped its nonresident tuition four years ago to attract more undergraduates from elsewhere. It is now the cheapest school in the Big Ten for those students, but it's the fourth-most-expensive for residents.

The number of nonresident students has swelled since 2007 from nearly 8 percent to more than 17 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of resident students dipped slightly and the number of students from reciprocity states such as Wisconsin shrank.

University President Eric Kaler says it's probably a good time to look at nonresident tuition and whether it needs to be changed. He says the university first needs to study how sensitive out-of-state students are to price.